How can we encourage our gerbil to chew on things again?

[songsparrow]

I have a question regarding my daughter's gerbil, Mucky.   He's about 2 years old.  We noticed that he was getting skinny and unfortunately it took us a while before we learned that weight loss can be caused by the teeth getting too long.  Last Saturday evening, we checked out his teeth and the bottom teeth were way too long.  We ground up his food into smaller pieces and he went crazy eating it.  On Sunday we found a vet and got his teeth trimmed.  He spent about a day and a half recovering - just eating, drinking and sleeping.  Since then, he has been back to his normal self.  He has plumped up quite a bit and he is quite active running on his wheel and burrowing.

The problem:  He will not chew on anything.  We've put a variety of things into his tank that he used to love to chew.  It used to be that as soon as you'd put a toilet paper roll in, he'd run over to chew it up.  We put a variety of other textures in, too - orchard grass, paper towel, paper, a wicker ball, apple sticks in various dimensions, plus his wood house - and he hasn't chewed on any of it.  Also, he's still not eating any big chunks of food or cracking open seeds. We are still crushing up his food so that he will eat.

We've been trying to get a good look at his teeth since they were trimmed.  Today when we looked, it appears that one of the bottom teeth may have fallen out.  I know that there were two teeth there a couple of days ago, and today we could only see one.  I'm wondering if perhaps the one tooth was loose and that was making it hurt or uncomfortable if he tried to chew on anything.  We will be watching to see if he gets back to chewing now.

We're concerned that if he won't chew on anything that we'll have to get his teeth trimmed regularly.  Is there anything we can do to encourage him to chew more?  I thought of putting almond butter on a toilet paper tube, but I don't want him to ingest the cardboard, just chew on it.

If he continues to not chew on things, can anybody give us an idea of how often we'll need to take him for teeth trimming?

Thanks for any advice!

[qtoffer]

I would bring him back to the same vet ASAP. Most vets would consider this a follow-up visit and not charge another office visit fee (though you should expect to pay for X-rays or meds if needed). It's possible that a tooth cracked below the gumline or that Mucky has an abscess that's making it too uncomfortable to chew.

I've had gerbils break teeth, and it didn't really seem to affect their eating or destructive habits. Teeth usually take about two weeks to grow back in. In the meantime, scrambled egg, dry oatmeal soaked in whole milk, and yogurt are good high calorie soft treats you can offer.

[songsparrow]

Thanks for the reply! We took him back to the vet today and it turned out that his one bottom tooth was broken in half but it had not broken off. They removed the broken part and gave us an antibiotic and a pain medicine. Hopefully this will do the trick!

[songsparrow]

Just a quick follow-up ... We gave him the course of antibiotics and gave pain medicine for about a week and it seemed to really help. He seems very healthy now - he has put on a good amount of weight, his coat is full and shiny, he is very active burrowing. But he still won't chew on hard things. The only items he's attempted to chew on has been to shred up pieces of paper towels and to pull apart (but not chew up) some wicker balls. We're continuing to crush his food so he will eat. Tomorrow we are taking him to have his teeth trimmed again - it will be his third tooth trimming. As things stand now, it looks like we'll have to continue to take him every three weeks to get his teeth trimmed.